The next hellsites. What makes us stay online. Bluesky. The allure of simplicity and the inexorable pull toward complex design features eroding our self-control.
I would love to know how you define addiction—I’ve read your book twice so I don’t mean that, I mean if there are different ways the internet addicts us, can you explain the different ways substances and behaviors do? Like some are dopaminergic, rewards based, do you have a simple way to break down types of addiction and the related behaviors substances? Does that make sense? 🫂
That's an awesome idea for a post! I will bank that for the future. But there are some things that I can say here.
A lot of my work is based in the idea that addiction is a process and not a status. It's not a thing that happens to us, but something we participate in.
In this context, I'd say that addiction is a strong dedication or devotion that impairs choice or control. So if talking about gambling, gaming, or whatnot, we participate in an activity.
There are a lot of ways to break down the processes involved in addiction. One of my favorites is the classic from John Kelly: feeling good (ie addictive behaviors as a way to access otherwise hard-to-access-otherwise sense of pleasure), feeling better, doing better (ie performance enhancement, even at level of say mitigating social anxiety, or perhaps as a way to socialize when can't socialize comfortably in other ways), and fitting in/compliance.
This is more of a functional breakdown, meaning it describes the actual function of the behavior, as opposed to the biochemical underpinnings
When people start to wake up from addictive behaviors, a key question we use as a prompt in psychotherapy is "what am I seeking here?" [from this behavior, this substance, this urge, etc] That to me is the most important way of breaking down the "types" of addiction in most cases.
If you haven’t interviewed her yet, I recommend Tracie Gardner for your podcast - she’s ED of the newly launched National Black Harm Reduction Network: https://www.nbhrn.org/about
I've built a library of dark patterns and sith psychology tricks that are used in Mobile/gacha games to talk about to other parents and cyber safety advocates. It was a product of some research I did when I was an expert witness in a murder trial, providing testimony about algorithmic radicalization and SEO/social media. Would love to talk to you and share what I've found.
I would love to know how you define addiction—I’ve read your book twice so I don’t mean that, I mean if there are different ways the internet addicts us, can you explain the different ways substances and behaviors do? Like some are dopaminergic, rewards based, do you have a simple way to break down types of addiction and the related behaviors substances? Does that make sense? 🫂
That's an awesome idea for a post! I will bank that for the future. But there are some things that I can say here.
A lot of my work is based in the idea that addiction is a process and not a status. It's not a thing that happens to us, but something we participate in.
In this context, I'd say that addiction is a strong dedication or devotion that impairs choice or control. So if talking about gambling, gaming, or whatnot, we participate in an activity.
There are a lot of ways to break down the processes involved in addiction. One of my favorites is the classic from John Kelly: feeling good (ie addictive behaviors as a way to access otherwise hard-to-access-otherwise sense of pleasure), feeling better, doing better (ie performance enhancement, even at level of say mitigating social anxiety, or perhaps as a way to socialize when can't socialize comfortably in other ways), and fitting in/compliance.
This is more of a functional breakdown, meaning it describes the actual function of the behavior, as opposed to the biochemical underpinnings
When people start to wake up from addictive behaviors, a key question we use as a prompt in psychotherapy is "what am I seeking here?" [from this behavior, this substance, this urge, etc] That to me is the most important way of breaking down the "types" of addiction in most cases.
Does that help?
If you haven’t interviewed her yet, I recommend Tracie Gardner for your podcast - she’s ED of the newly launched National Black Harm Reduction Network: https://www.nbhrn.org/about
Thank you very much!
I've built a library of dark patterns and sith psychology tricks that are used in Mobile/gacha games to talk about to other parents and cyber safety advocates. It was a product of some research I did when I was an expert witness in a murder trial, providing testimony about algorithmic radicalization and SEO/social media. Would love to talk to you and share what I've found.
Thanks Tarik, I'll message you!